1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic timepiece which performs display by using hands.
2. Description of Related Art
There have been conventionally hand-type display devices which perform display according to dates and times and other various functions by using hands.
In such display devices, hands for displaying times in timepieces and such like rotate and indicate elapse of respective predetermined times such as 1 minute, 1 hour and 12 hours by a single rotation in many cases.
On the other hand, hands for displaying measurement values by sensors and such like are configured to perform reciprocating motions within limited angle ranges in many cases. There is also a display technique called retrograde mechanism in which the operation is allowed only within a predetermined angle range even for a hand displaying a time, and when a hand reaches an end of the range, the hand is immediately moved backward and returned to the other end.
There are also timepieces for various effects by exposing only partial angle ranges of rotating hands. Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2012-68245 which is a Japanese patent document discloses a technique which exposes a partial operation range for each of a plurality of hands and displays the entire angle range by the total of exposed partial ranges. The technique generates a visual effect by making the hands perform a same operation and perform display in different exposed parts according to the ranges indicated by the hands.
On the other hand, in electronic timepieces which move hands electrically by using stepping motors, it has been conventionally possible to arbitrarily control the operation of hands in both rotation directions. However, in a case where the display range allowing a hand to operate is a limited angle range, there is a problem that when an operation instruction is input to move the hand out of the display range, the hand simply goes out of the range and the user does not recognize such input when the input is continued further.